Rishi Garg is a partner at Mayfield who invests in driven, product-centric entrepreneurs looking to impact millions of lives. He led corporate development and strategy at Twitter, Square and MTV Networks.

Ten years ago the iOS App Store launched — and the mobile revolution was off. Entrepreneurs everywhere rallied to take advantage, building category-defining consumer companies like Twitter, Uber, Lyft and Square, among many others.

There’s no better time for an entrepreneur to start a company than when a new platform like mobile emerges. The rising tide in these moments becomes a tsunami: Eager customers descend on services through word of mouth and new acquisition channels; there’s outsized press interest; and sales take off in part due to growth of the platform itself.

Now is not one of these periods. Mobile appears mature, and the next great enabling platform is still just past the horizon. That’s why many early-stage VCs have shifted their focus away from consumer and to other new enabling technologies, such as autonomous vehicles, blockchain and AI/ML.

I have a different view. I think now is a great time to build consumer companies, even without a new platform. There are three reasons for this. First, the internet has created big problems for humans, organizations and society, which entrepreneurs can attack at scale. Second, the first wave of mobile-enabled companies have laid a foundation — including processes, seasoned executives and business models — that new entrepreneurs can borrow. And third, mobile technology is still changing and evolving.

Let’s take a closer look at all three.

Solving big problems

The last wave of breakout companies created interactive platforms (Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, etc.) that have entertained many. They didn’t solve big societal problems. There’s now a big need — and big opportunity — for companies that can help people save time, money and sanity, even as they build great businesses.

Most of us now realize the major problems that a connected, mobile, always-on world has wrought. These include:

Income inequality. Lower-income Americans are struggling more than ever. Entrepreneurs should be thinking of ways to help folks where they need it the most: the pocketbook. That might mean unlocking found money, ensuring that available financial resources are being used wisely or saving consumers from the growing number of “gotchas” imposed by financial institutions.

Too many choices. When you can buy or choose anything, it’s hard to pick what you actually want. There are wide-open opportunities for concierges, curation and trusted guides.

A lack of intimacy. With everything online and available at the touch of a keypad, genuine human interaction has become more rare. There’s a need for companies that can provide real care and curation for matters that affect our daily lives.

Newly available resources

After a decade of building companies for mobile, there are now untold stories, battle scars and people available for future companies to learn from. This makes it easier for startups to assemble playbooks and experienced teams. It also reduces the downside risk for investors, opening new paths to capital for companies that need it.

For instance, it’s now clear that consumer brands must define, own and curate an end-to-end experience. A great new example is GOAT, the online sneakerhead marketplace. Faced with a sneaker market full of rampant knock-offs, the founders invested in a capital- and time-intensive process to manually inspect every shoe for authenticity. The result is an experience that every sneakerhead loves and a breakthrough consumer brand.

Building a breakout consumer platform will be more complex, more challenging and often more capital-intensive than it was for the prior generation.

There are also lots of executives and teams that know how to lead and manage complex operations, especially on the ground. This is crucial to scale logistically complex ideas like Opendoor, Instacart and others.

The other thing needed to help scale these companies is capital. And right now, there are two particularly relevant new kinds of investors: 1) mega equity funds like SoftBank Vision Fund, and 2) alternative lending funds that provide non-dilutive capital to companies to finance the acquisition of traditional assets. Those capital sources enable companies like Opendoor (disclosure: I’m a personal investor) to own and manage a truly delightful end-to-end experience.

Mobile today is not mobile tomorrow

Mobile devices have come a long way over the last decade. And there will be many more meaningful improvements in the near future, allowing for new uses and new companies.

I anticipate breakthroughs that will boost the ability of the chips and subsystems on a phone to perform optimally for far longer. Right now, these are throttled due to heating issues and other problems. As companies solve these issues, they’ll create order of magnitude improvements on what our phones are capable of, bringing technologies like VR and AR, to take two examples, far forward into everyday use.

On the network side, 5G and subsequent buildouts will meaningfully change what kinds of bandwidth we can handle, enabling even more data and compute to be in the cloud.

Mobile today is about one-to-many broadcast platforms like Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Tomorrow’s great consumer companies will leverage a better vector: one-to-one customer intimacy. Companies like Grove Collaborative (disclosure: Mayfield is an investor) are experiencing hypergrowth in part by using real people connecting with consumers over text to bring a curated, personalized experience to shopping for household staples. I expect this to be a major trend, with the companies that earn the right to communicate more with customers the ones that win.

Building a breakout consumer platform will be more complex, more challenging and often more capital-intensive than it was for certain titans of the prior generation. But for those with the vision and substance to bring a valuable service to the world that solves real problems, the resources and emerging technologies will be there to help create the next groundbreaking consumer brand.

]]>https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/15/overnight-success-now-requires-a-little-more-time/feed/01744111https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/15/overnight-success-now-requires-a-little-more-time/Despite a strong Q3 earnings report, Square’s Q4 forecast disappoints investorshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechCrunch/Square/~3/mT88gKe_smM/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/07/despite-a-strong-q3-earnings-report-squares-q4-forecast-disappoints-investors/#respondThu, 08 Nov 2018 03:04:02 +0000https://techcrunch.com/?p=1743606Despite a strong third-quarter earnings report, Square’s forecast for the final quarter of this year gave investors pause, sending its share price down 6 percent in after-hours trading before it gradually climbed up again.

Total third-quarter revenue was $882.1 million, a 51 percent increase from the same period last year, and Square also marked its first quarterly profit of $20 million, compared to a loss of $16 million last year. In an earnings call, CFO Sarah Friar said this was due largely to Square’s investment in Eventbrite, which held its IPO in October.

Despite beating analysts’ expectations for its third quarter and also raising its adjusted core earnings forecast for 2018 to between $250 million and $255 million, up from $240 million to $250 million, Square’s forecast for the fourth quarter missed expectations. The company expects adjusted earnings of 12 cents to 13 cents a share, lower than the 15 cents forecast by analysts polled by Refinitiv.

Investors were also worried about Square’s transaction-based revenue, which grew 29 percent to $655 million during the third quarter, compared to 31 percent last year, because even slightly slower growth may signal that competitors like Clover are gaining more traction. Square reported, however, that the important segment of gross payment volume (GPV) it processes from “large sellers,” or merchants who do more than $125,000 a year in GPV, grew to 52 percent, up from 48 percent a year ago.

Friars said in Square’s earnings call that this is because Square has made it easier for large retailers to integrate Square’s platform into their operations, as well as the recent launches of Square Terminal, its credit card machine, and Square Installments, which enables merchants to allow customers to make monthly payments.

Friar, who oversaw Square’s IPO in November 2015 and has served as its CFO since 2012, announced last month that she will leave the company to become the CEO of Nextdoor. CEO and founder Jack Dorsey said that the search for a new CFO is his “number one focus at the company” and will be led by independent director David Viniar and board member Roelof Botha.

]]>https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/07/despite-a-strong-q3-earnings-report-squares-q4-forecast-disappoints-investors/feed/01743606https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/07/despite-a-strong-q3-earnings-report-squares-q4-forecast-disappoints-investors/Square details compensation and promotion practiceshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechCrunch/Square/~3/GH1q7H6tduE/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/22/square-inclusion-diversity/#respondMon, 22 Oct 2018 16:00:10 +0000https://techcrunch.com/?p=1735370When tech companies explore diversity and inclusion initiatives, there’s a risk that marginalized groups may feel “othered” and reduced to a number. That’s what Square has found, the company revealed in the first of a series of posts on Square’s diversity and inclusion efforts. So instead of emphasizing demographic data, Square is taking a new approach that entails deep dives into its inclusion efforts.

Regarding promotions and compensation — two key places where unconscious bias can often show up — Square has begun to implement three specific initiatives. One is pushing managers to consider promotion readiness for everyone on their team, explicitly highlighting the people who have been at their current job level longer than the median time for people in similar roles who were promoted in the past two promotion cycles.

“Although time in job level is just one metric in a multi-dimensional promotion consideration process, these primers help ensure that every team member is considered, not just those who are more vocal or in more visible roles,” Square describes on its blog.

And before someone gets a raise, Square’s people analytics team conducts a full audit of pay fairness by gender, race and age. The goal is to mitigate bias by checking for any statistical evidence of it before the decision becomes final.

“We check for potential disparities both overall and within specific jobs, and review any outliers we find,” Square says. “While this lengthens the overall promotion process, it gives us the opportunity to make any necessary adjustments before finalizing employees’ new compensation.”

Square is not at the point where diverse people are evenly distributed across high-paying roles, but says addressing that is part of the plan.

“Reporting is important, but it doesn’t appear to be driving meaningful change or increasing our public accountability,” Square explains on its site. “Even worse, what these reports do seem to accomplish is the commoditization of the communities the practice was intended to support. Many employees tell us these reports make them feel like they’re reduced to numbers. And that sucks.”

While Square still has plans to share demographic data, the company is looking to be more transparent and communicative around all of its efforts. The purpose of these posts is to shed some light into Square’s approach to D&I, speaking candidly about what has worked and what hasn’t worked. The ideal outcome is that other companies will open up and share their best and inadvertently worst practices.

As explained to me by the company’s Head of Hardware Jesse Dorogusker, the Terminal fills a gap the company’s product lineup — unlike the basic card reader, it provides an all-in-one hardware experience (no phone or tablet required), but more affordable than the Square Register.

Dorogusker suggested that it’s really designed to replace the “outdated” credit card terminals that you’ll encounter in all kinds of stores (like the gray block that sits on the counter of my local bodega). He argued that these terminals often come with onerous contracts for the business owner, and they’re not a great experience for consumers, either.

The new Terminal, on the other hand, provides a more Square -like experience. For one thing, it works with WiFi and is powered by an all-day battery, so it can be carried around the store and handed over to customers.

“One of the really fun things we realized about this product is that in addition to having Square Payments built-in, it unlocks people to use it in new ways,” Dorogusker said.

For example, he said the beta testers included a restaurant that can now process payments at the customer’s table, a salon that allows customers to pay while they’re still in their chair and a plastic surgeon whose patients can go through the bill while in the privacy of the treatment room.

Dorogusker acknowledged that restaurants in some countries are already bringing wireless card terminals to customers’ tables, but he said that they don’t have the other advantages of a Square Terminal, like a display that allows you to see the price of every item you’re buying. Plus, there’s the ability to accept payments from smartphones and other devices through Apple Pay and Google Pay, and there’s Square’s two-second processing time for chip cards.

Square Terminal costs $399. Businesses that are new to Square and that order now will also receive a $300 processing credit. With or without the credit, Square will process those payments on the same simple terms it offers to everyone else — 2.6 percent, plus 10 cents for each transaction.

]]>https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/18/square-terminal/feed/01734576https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/18/square-terminal/Sarah Friar, long the CFO of Square, is leaving to join the social network Nextdoor as its CEOhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechCrunch/Square/~3/F3k7l1yIXtQ/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/10/sarah-friar-long-the-cfo-of-square-is-leaving-to-join-the-social-network-nextdoor-as-its-ceo/#commentsWed, 10 Oct 2018 20:45:50 +0000https://techcrunch.com/?p=1730893Square’s CFO Sarah Friar is stepping down to become the CEO of Nextdoor, according to the payment company’s CEO, Jack Dorsey.

In a statement issued a bit ago, he says of Friar that she “steered us through an IPO and helped build a growing ecosystem of businesses that will scale into the future.” Friar “leaves us having established a culture of entrepreneurship and discipline across the entire company. She has been an amazing leader, partner, and friend, and we are grateful for all she’s done for Square.”

Nextdoor has since released its own statement about Friar, who will assume the position in December. Quoting the company’s co-founder and outgoing CEO Nirav Tolia, the statement reads: “Sarah is one of the most highly regarded executives in Silicon Valley with an exceptionally rare mix of proven business skills, and authentic heart and soul. . . From the very beginning of our CEO search, she has been the top choice, and the board of directors and I feel exceptionally fortunate and excited for her to lead Nextdoor moving forward.”

The hire looks like a smart move by Nextdoor, the fast-growing social network that centers around neighborhoods and which, three months ago, announced that Tolia planned to step aside as soon as he found the right person to take Nextdoor “to the next level.”

At the time, Tolia had said in an email to employees that the role of CEO needed to evolve as the company evolves. He also said then that he will remain the company’s board chairman.

San Francisco-based Nextdoor has raised $285 million from investors over its eight-plus years, including from Insight Venture Partners, Benchmark, Shasta Ventures, Tiger Global Management and Kleiner Perkins. The company has soared into unicorn terrain, but it also seemingly needs to generate more revenue before it can be taken public. Toward that end, it began offering paid real estate listings roughly one year ago. The company also sells targeted ads.

Friar, often described as Dorsey’s right-hand woman at Square, grew up in Northern Ireland, the daughter of farmers. She was the first in her family to go to university, studying engineering at Oxford.

After graduating, she joined McKinsey as a business analyst in London, then Johannesburg, before moving to California in 1998 to nab an MBA at Stanford. Friar went on to spend a decade with Goldman Sachs in Silicon Valley, leaving the powerhouse bank as a managing director before spending a year with Salesforce as an SVP, then joining Square in 2012.

In addition to her work with Square, Friar sits on the boards of two powerful companies: Slack and Walmart.

]]>https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/10/sarah-friar-long-the-cfo-of-square-is-leaving-to-join-the-social-network-nextdoor-as-its-ceo/feed/71730893https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/10/sarah-friar-long-the-cfo-of-square-is-leaving-to-join-the-social-network-nextdoor-as-its-ceo/Square sellers can now offer their customers payment planshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechCrunch/Square/~3/TxnEmkWMGRM/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/04/square-sellers-can-now-offer-their-customers-payment-plans/#commentsThu, 04 Oct 2018 18:21:11 +0000https://techcrunch.com/?p=1726686Square today launched a new service that will allow its small business sellers to offer financing to their customers. Square Installments, as the service is called, will be available at launch to sellers in 22 U.S. states for purchases between $250 and $10,000. Customers can apply to pay for their purchase over three, six, or 12 months.

Interest rates for the purchases will range between 0 and 24 percent, Square says, and decisions on approvals will be made in real time.

The company designed the process to be quick and transparent, only requiring a brief application process that can be done at any time — including either in the store or at home. When approved, Square also spells out what the total cost will be, and displays the monthly payment options available.

Square says it came to the decision to move into consumer lending services because of customer demand. A survey it ran indicated there was strong demand for more flexible payment options among U.S. consumers. It also cited research that found that 68 percent of consumers said they would be more likely to consider a small or local business if it offered financing options.

But many smaller businesses have not been able to offer payment programs, because they either have minimum sales requirements they can’t meet, or because set up time is too labor intensive or expensive, Square explains.

“We’re focused on removing the complexity associated with financial products, enabling more businesses to access incredible tools that can help them grow,” said Jacqueline Reses, head of Square Capital, in a statement about the launch. “Square Installments delivers simple and quick financing to customers seeking greater flexibility as they make purchasing decisions.”

Square isn’t alone in addressing the needs of smaller sellers who want to offer payment programs.

However, not all are suitable for smaller sellers, like those who may run their businesses on Square.

The new Square Installments service is being run out of Square Capital, a subsidiary of Square that also offers cash advances to merchants. In the second quarter of 2018, Square Capital originated more than 60,000 loans totally $390 million, up 22 percent from the second quarter last year.

]]>https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/04/square-sellers-can-now-offer-their-customers-payment-plans/feed/11726686https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/04/square-sellers-can-now-offer-their-customers-payment-plans/Weebly brings more e-commerce features to mobilehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechCrunch/Square/~3/-U18slnZVNM/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/30/weebly-mobile-commerce/#respondThu, 30 Aug 2018 23:08:08 +0000https://techcrunch.com/?p=1702075Weebly is part of Square now, but it continues to update as a standalone product. This week, for example, the company announced a number of new e-commerce features for the Weebly mobile app.

Those features include the ability to ship and print labels, to respond to customer questions (via Facebook Messenger, which can be embedded on Weebly sites), to approve customer reviews, to create branded coupon codes and to edit every aspect of your store, including product listing and pricing — all from the app.

Much of this functionality already existed on desktop, so the announcement is about moving these capabilities onto smartphones. In a blog post, the company outlined a vision for the mobile phone to become “the new back office.”

Weebly CEO David Rusenko told me that as his team has been adding more features for merchants, he wants people to think of Weebly “increasingly as an e-commerce platform,” not just a simple website builder. And support for mobile was an important part of that.

“This is what our customers were requesting,” Rusenko said. “Basically, people are taking their entrepreneurial lifestyle and having the freedom to work on things wherever you are.”

And apparently mobile usage is already up significantly, with a 75 percent increase over the past year in customers using the Weebly mobile app to manage orders, as well as a 120 percent increase in mobile usage to manage product listings.

]]>https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/30/weebly-mobile-commerce/feed/01702075https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/30/weebly-mobile-commerce/Square can now process chip cards in two secondshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechCrunch/Square/~3/1NMkh5L0qZU/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/15/square-chip-cards/#commentsWed, 15 Aug 2018 17:01:34 +0000https://techcrunch.com/?p=1691845If you’ve made any payments with a chip card, you’ve probably had awkward moments — those long seconds after you’ve inserted the card and everyone behind you is (literally or metaphorically) tapping their foot, waiting for the card to be processed.

Well, Square has been working on this problem for a while now. Last fall, for example, CEO Jack Dorsey said the company had gotten the processing time down to under three seconds.

Today, the company is announcing that it’s shaved even more time off, and that Square contactless and chip Readers and Registers can now process chip cards in two seconds. To achieve this, it says it’s worked closely with payment partners — and it’s also streamlined the process so that you can remove your card as soon as it’s read, without waiting for the response from the card issuer.

In contrast, when the Wall Street Journal timed chip cards in over 50 transactions a couple years ago, it found that the average processing time was 13 seconds. Those extra seconds might not sound like much in theory, but again, if you’re in a hurry or you’ve got a line of people behind you, the wait can be painful.

Plus, it sounds like this can make a real difference for businesses. In the announcement, Regan Long, co-founder and brewmaster at Local Brewing Co., said that with her brewery’s location near the Giants’ AT&T Park in San Francisco, there’s usually “a rush of customers all ready to close out their open beer tabs at the same time.”

“With Square’s chip card reader update, we’ve cut processing time in half — helping us keep customers happy and on their way to catch the first pitch,” she added.

In addition to faster chip card processing, Square is making another speed-related announcement: With the latest update, Square’s free point-of-sale app will allow sellers to skip collecting signatures if they choose.

]]>https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/15/square-chip-cards/feed/31691845https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/15/square-chip-cards/Square now lets developers use its Reader to build custom checkout experienceshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechCrunch/Square/~3/01Vc1hSLm0U/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/02/square-now-lets-developers-use-its-reader-to-build-custom-checkout-experiences/#respondThu, 02 Aug 2018 17:00:35 +0000https://techcrunch.com/?p=1685022Square, the company you know from your favorite coffee shop’s checkout counter, is opening to developers its Reader hardware. Using the new Square Reader SDK, developers will be able to build their own custom checkout and point of sale experiences, no matter whether that’s a self-ordering kiosk, a mobile app for waiters or any other similar service.

“While we’ve built some of the best point of sale software on the market, we know that many industries have niche needs and businesses may crave unique experiences that aren’t served by our existing products,” Square’s developer platform lead Carl Perry writes today. “That’s why we’re opening up our platform and providing developers direct access to Square hardware for the very first time.”

The overall idea here, it seems, is to ensure that Square’s service doesn’t just work well in industries where it is already strong (retail, restaurants, etc.) but also in niches where it currently doesn’t have a presence. And this new SDK will allow iOS and Android developers that want to support Square’s payment system to bring their solutions to verticals like transportation and healthcare, for example. It’ll also make it easy for them to integrate their payment system with other business software, like customer relationship management solutions and more complex enterprise resource planning systems.

Among those who have already trialed the SDK is Shake Shack, which is testing a Square Reader SDK-powered self-service kiosk at its “Shack of the Future” in New York and a number of pop-up locations. Similarly, Infinite Peripherals is building a digital taxi meter that’s currently in use in Washington, DC. Other early users include Joe and the Juice, a juice chain with an Instagram account, and QuiqMeds, which helps healthcare providers dispense medication at the point-of-care (instead of the pharmacy).

]]>https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/02/square-now-lets-developers-use-its-reader-to-build-custom-checkout-experiences/feed/01685022https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/02/square-now-lets-developers-use-its-reader-to-build-custom-checkout-experiences/Square’s crazy run this year dodges any major snags with a decent Q2http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechCrunch/Square/~3/kWTwQU1mWEQ/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/01/squares-crazy-run-this-year-dodges-any-major-snags-with-a-decent-q2/#respondWed, 01 Aug 2018 20:37:34 +0000https://techcrunch.com/?p=1684463ÆWhile we’re talking about companies like Apple getting alarmingly close to a $1 trillion market cap, both of Jack Dorsey’s companies — Twitter (at least before its earnings last week) and Square — have been on considerable runs, and it looks like the latter won’t be coming to a major halt after today’s quarterly report.

The company reported its second-quarter results today, which were somewhat mixed compared to what Wall Street was expecting but didn’t appear to raise the kinds of significant red flags Twitter raised last week that sent its stock into a tailspin. The company outpaced what analysts expected for its earnings results as its core gross payment volume continued to rise and its net losses narrowed when compared to its second quarter last year. In a year that’s included some evolution in its hardware products and a bet on Bitcoin, Square has seen its stock more than double in the past 12 months and rise 90% since the beginning of the year.

The stock is down around 2.5% this afternoon after the company posted its report, but for the most part, it isn’t the kind of substantial trip-up that would have been a major setback amid an otherwise high-velocity year.

Square’s additional bets beyond its core business, including subscriptions and what it calls “services-based revenue” also more than doubled year-over-year on an adjusted basis, which was driven by its ancillary products like Caviar, Square Capital, it Cash Card, and its Instant Deposit service. The company said Square Capital facilitated more than 60,000 loans totaling $390 million, which is quickly becoming one of its big businesses to run alongside its typical payments system as it looks to snap up adoption of the entire operational stack for small businesses.

The company also had two other lines of revenue that are showing some growth: its hardware business, which while small, is also growing quickly as a result of Square Register and its other hardware products; and Bitcoin, another play it’s making when it comes to its Cash products. Bitcoin generated $37 million in the second quarter, while its hardware division generated $18 million. All of these are part of a way for Square to diversify beyond just being a transaction tool for businesses and look to crack into all the other operational layers of how money generally moves across different surfaces, primarily focusing on the flow in and out of businesses.

]]>https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/01/squares-crazy-run-this-year-dodges-any-major-snags-with-a-decent-q2/feed/01684463https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/01/squares-crazy-run-this-year-dodges-any-major-snags-with-a-decent-q2/Ebay to add support for Apple Pay, partners with Square Capital on seller financinghttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechCrunch/Square/~3/MdsF21K409U/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/24/ebay-to-add-support-for-apple-pay-partners-with-square-capital-on-seller-financing/#respondTue, 24 Jul 2018 13:44:33 +0000https://techcrunch.com/?p=1679037Ebay announced this morning it will begin accepting Apple Pay on its marketplace starting this fall, and has also teamed up with Square Capital on seller financing. The changes come following eBay’s further distancing from longtime partner PayPal, which included the company’s switch to Adyen as its primary payments processing partner, announced earlier this year.

At the time, eBay said PayPal would continue to be an option at checkout, but Adyen would become the default over time.

Now eBay is adding one more option to the mix with support for Apple Pay – something the company refers to as “the first step” in offering its tens of millions of buyers more choice in terms of their payment options. eBay’s statements indicate Apple Pay is one of several options still to come, as it’s referred to as being “among the first forms of payment” the marketplace has planned.

The Apple Pay rollout will begin this fall in the U.S. on a limited scale, allowing buyers to purchase using Apple Pay in iOS and Safari in order to check out both on the mobile web and in eBay’s app.

“Apple Pay is one of the most ubiquitous forms of payments and provides users with an easy, fast and secure way to pay,” said Steve Fisher, Senior Vice President of Payments at eBay, in a statement. “Offering Apple Pay as a form of payment on eBay is the first step in providing more choice and flexibility in payment options to our tens of millions of buyers.”

The company’s shift to its new payments experience will continue in 2019, and it expects to have the majority of its marketplace shifted by 2021. Along the way, Apple Pay will become available to more customers across more inventory and in more regions worldwide.

Related to this, eBay also announced today a new partnership with Square Capital to help U.S. sellers with financing to grow their businesses.

Sellers will be able to apply for $500 up to $100,000 of financing for any business need, including things like payroll, inventory, marketing, or equipment, among other things. eBay stresses the importance of offering selling working capital, citing a small business survey that found 70 percent of small businesses didn’t receive the funding they wanted.

Square Capital’s system for offering financing only involves a few steps, instead of filling out longer loan forms. And once approved, the funds can reach sellers in as little as one business day. Meanwhile, the borrowing cost never changes during the life of the loan, so sellers know what they can expect in terms of payments.

Square has been offering loans since 2014, facilitating $2.8 billion to over 180,000 businesses in the process. In 2016, it began offering loans to businesses outside of Square’s own ecosystem, through its partnership program.

“Expanding access to capital, including to those who have been underserved when seeking funding, is core to Square’s purpose of economic empowerment,” said Jacqueline Reses, Head of Square Capital . “Square Capital understands the needs of small businesses and facilitates a simple, seamless funding experience. We’re proud to partner with eBay and enable more sellers across the U.S. to invest in growing their business.”

Ebay says select sellers will begin to receive emailed invitations to apply for Square Capital loans starting in the third quarter of 2018.

PayPal spun out from eBay in 2015, to become its own publicly traded company – a move eBay’s board said would benefit both companies, allowing them to grow in their respective markets.

PayPal, as of late, has been making a huge push for international growth and other expansions, with the acquisitions of iZettle, the “Square of Europe” and Hyperwallet, while also shoring up its product with AI, thanks to the acquisitions of AI-based prediction platform Jetlore and AI-based fraud and risk management firm Simility.

Ebay, meanwhile, has been making changes of its own, with its switch to Adyen. The hope is now that adding a suite of other payment options will give customers more ways to pay, which in turn would increase conversions and therefore eBay’s bottom line.

The marketplace giant recently posted a slight miss on second quarter revenues – $2.64 billion instead of the estimated $2.66 billion, but sales were up 9 percent over the year-ago quarter. In addition, eBay said its user base of active buyers was growing, having reached 175 million up from 171 million in the first quarter, and up from 167 million in the year-ago quarter. That leaves room for the company to capitalize on these payments changes going forward.

]]>https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/24/ebay-to-add-support-for-apple-pay-partners-with-square-capital-on-seller-financing/feed/01679037https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/24/ebay-to-add-support-for-apple-pay-partners-with-square-capital-on-seller-financing/Snapchat will shut down Snapcash, forfeiting to Venmohttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechCrunch/Square/~3/7ASNM6LvCh8/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/22/snapcashing-out/#respondSun, 22 Jul 2018 18:00:16 +0000https://techcrunch.com/?p=1677956Snapcash ended up as a way to pay adult performers for private content over Snapchat, not just a way to split bills with friends. But Snapchat will abandon the peer-to-peer payment space on August 30th. Code buried in Snapchat’s Android app includes a “Snapcash deprecation message” that displays “Snapcash will no longer be available after %s [date]”. Shutting down the feature will bring an end to Snapchat’s four-year partnership with Square to power the feature for sending people money.

Snapcash may have become more of a liability than a utility. With apps like Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, and Square Cash itself, there were plenty of other ways to pay back friends for drinks or Ubers, so Snapcash may have seen low legitimate usage. Meanwhile, a quick Twitter search for “Snapcash” surfaced plenty of offers of erotic content in exchange for payments through the feature. It may have been safer for Snapchat to ditch Snapcash than risk PR problems over its misuse.

TechCrunch tipster Ishan Agarwal provided the below screenshot of Snapchat’s code to TechCrunch. When presented with the code and asked if Snapcash would shut down, a Snapchat spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that it would, explaining: “Yes, we’re discontinuing the Snapcash feature as of August 30, 2018. Snapcash was our first product created in partnership with another company – Square. We’re thankful for all the Snapchatters who used Snapcash for the last four years and for Square’s partnership!” The spokesperson noted that users would be notified in-app and through the support site soon.

[Update 7/23: Square also issued a statement to TechCrunch, tell us that, yes, it’s ending the partnership with Snapchat at the end of next month. Aiming to show its Square Cash product is still alive, a spokeperson told us “With more than 7 million monthly customers, Cash App continues to see strong growth, while delivering utility and flexibility for individuals’ money. We continue to focus on building new features that address the financial needs of our customers as we work to expand financial access for all.”

Snapcash gave Snapchat a way to get users to connect payment methods to the app. That’s increasingly important as the company aims to become a commerce platforms where you can shop without leaving the app. Having payment info on file is what makes buying things through Snapchat easier than the web and draws brands to use Snapchat storefronts.

We’ll see how Snapchat plans evolve its commerce strategy without this driver. Earlier this month, TechCrunch revealed that Snapchat’s code contained mentions of a project codenamed “eagle” that’s a camera search feature. It was designed to allow users to scan an object or barcode with their Snapchat camera and see product results in Amazon. But since our report, mentions of Amazon have disappeared from the code. It’s unclear what will happen in the future, but camera search could give Snapchat new utility and monetization options.

Snapcash won’t be a part of that future, though. Given Snapchat’s cost-cutting efforts including layoffs, its desperate need to attract and retain advertisers to hit revenue estimates its missed, and its persistent bad rap as a sexting app, it couldn’t afford to support unnecessary features or another scandal.

]]>https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/22/snapcashing-out/feed/01677956https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/22/snapcashing-out/Toast raises $115M at a $1.4B valuation to create a one-stop management tool for restaurantshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechCrunch/Square/~3/KOYcxi6sJSo/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/10/toast-raises-115m-at-a-1-4b-valuation-to-create-a-one-stop-management-tool-for-restaurants/#respondTue, 10 Jul 2018 13:00:49 +0000https://techcrunch.com/?p=1670199While massive restaurant chains might have resources to build out their own management systems or integrate with larger point-of-sale providers, Toast — a provider of tools for restaurants to manage their business — is raising a big round of funding to go after everyone else.

Now Toast is a business valued at $1.4 billion, thanks to a fresh infusion of $115 million in its latest round of funding. At its core, Toast is a point-of-sale for restaurants, though over time it’s added more and more services on top of that. Now the goal is to be not just a point of sale, but offer a whole system to help restaurants operate efficiently. That can range from the actual point of sale all the way to loyalty programs and reporting on that information. The round was led by T. Rowe Price Associates, with participation from new investor Tiger Global Management and other existing investors.

“We’re just trying to keep our finger on the pulse to what matters to restauranteurs,” CFO Tim Barash said. “We hear a lot about the labor side of the equation. We’re working through what to do there. If you ask restaurants about the number one thing they’re thinking about, most respondents say it’s around labor — that’s a really big one.”

Starting off in 2011 as a point-of-sale business, the company now offers a complete suite of tools that help restaurants streamline both the front and back house of the restaurant. And as Toast collects more and more data on how restaurants are using its tools — like any startup with a lot of inbound data, really — it can start helping those restaurants figure out how to improve their businesses further. That might be modifying menus slightly based on what people are enjoying, or pointing them in the right direction as to when to make slight adjustments to their basic operations.

There’s also an online ordering part of the business. Toast helps restaurants boot up an online ordering part of their business quickly, in addition to offering tools to help streamline that process. A restaurant might deal with a flood of orders or throttle them if necessary. Businesses then get reports on their whole online ordering business, helping them further calibrate what to offer — and what might work better for the in-person experience as well.

The next focus for Toast, Barash said, is figuring out the labor side of the equation. That comes down to helping restaurants not only find new employees, but also figure out how to retain them in an industry with a significant amount of turnover. Attacking the hiring part of the problem is one approach, though there are other approaches like Pared, which looks to turn the labor market for restaurants into an on-demand one. But there’s obvious low-hanging fruit, like making it easier to switch shifts, among other things, Barash said.

“One in 11 working human beings work in restaurants,” Barash said. “I would say we’re still trying to figure out what we can do as a central platform of record, continuing to carry a high quality network of partners or us building some things ourselves. We’re early days in figuring them out. If you go to any restaurant in Boston, and look at all the help wanted signs, you can see the barrier to being successful is a lot of times more on the employee side than on the guest side. Then once you have them hired, you have to think about how you can retain those employees and make sure they’re engaged and successful.”

Toast isn’t the only startup looking to own a point-of-sale and then expand into other elements of running a business, though. Lightspeed POS, which also offers a pretty large set of tools for brick-and-mortar stores — including restaurants — raised $166 million late last year. There are also the obvious point-of-sale competitors like Square that, while designed to be a broad solution and not just target restaurants, are pretty widely adopted and can also try to own that whole restaurant management stack, from clocking in and out to getting reports on what’s selling well.

]]>https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/10/toast-raises-115m-at-a-1-4b-valuation-to-create-a-one-stop-management-tool-for-restaurants/feed/01670199https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/10/toast-raises-115m-at-a-1-4b-valuation-to-create-a-one-stop-management-tool-for-restaurants/Square’s Caviar agrees to pay $2.2 million to settle class-action lawsuit over gratuityhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechCrunch/Square/~3/IaQIXMWtnKk/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/11/squares-caviar-agrees-to-pay-2-2-million-to-settle-class-action-lawsuit-over-gratuity/#respondMon, 11 Jun 2018 17:53:11 +0000https://techcrunch.com/?p=1654705Square, the payments company led by Jack Dorsey, has agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a class-action lawsuit involving its on-demand food delivery service, Caviar . Today, customers who ordered food from Caviar between January 20, 2012 and August 31, 2015 received a notice of the proposed class-action settlement.

As part of the settlement, which TechCrunch has reviewed, plaintiff Spencer Janssen’s counsel is expected to seek up to $755,000 in fees and costs. Janssen himself is seeking up to $10,000, which means the remaining $1.44 million will be divvied up among other class members, who can use the money to put toward another Caviar order. The parties agreed there were 93,914 class members, so that comes out to about $15.28 per person. The court will make its decision to approve or deny the settlement on September 21, 2018.

The lawsuit claimed Square collected gratuities from customers but didn’t pass on that money to the delivery drivers. Square disputes those claims, and also points to the fact that “each driver knew in advance the amount he or she would be paid under his or her contract for each order before accepting and making that delivery,” Square’s attorney wrote in a court filing.

“We have always properly compensated delivery couriers, and discontinued this practice long ago to provide better transparency around costs,” a Square spokesperson told TechCrunch. “We have chosen to settle this matter to avoid the cost and distraction of litigation and provide direct benefit to our valued customers.”

In the agreed-upon settlement, it’s reiterated that Square denies all the allegations “and took the position that the use of the term ‘gratuity’ was neither misleading to reasonable consumers nor unlawful. Defendant contended that the amounts collected as gratuities from Plaintiff were paid to his independent contractor couriers.”

On the heels of payment processing startup Adyen pricing its IPO in Europe to raise $1 billion, another startup working in the area of digital payment processing has raised a significant growth round. Marqeta, a startup out of Oakland that works with businesses for payment-card related services, including instant card-based payments and issuing their own branded credit cards, has raised $45 million led by Iconiq.

Marqeta says it plans to use its Series D to keep focussing on developing more solutions, as well as take its business international.

“We’re excited to bring aboard ICONIQ Capital and Goldman Sachs, who deeply understand innovation in financial technology and payments,” said Marqeta founder and CEO Jason Gardner in a statement. “We look forward to their contributions to Marqeta as we continue to scale operations and expand our footprint around the world.”

Other investors participating in this round, a Series D extension, include Goldman Sachs and other, unnamed existing investors. (Those previous backers include Visa, which led the original Series D of $25 million; Max Levchin whose business Affirm is a customer; CommerzVentures; 83North and more.)

The round being announced today brings Marqeta’s total funding to $116 million, and while the company is not disclosing its valuation, a spokesperson confirmed that it was at a higher number than before. When it looked like Marqeta was raising only an additional $40 million earlier this year, PitchBook estimated the pre-money valuation for this round at $500 million with a post-money of $540 million.

However, it appears that the round was oversubscribed after a strong period of growth for the company: it says payment volume more than doubled in last six months, with its virtual card business is on pace to grow 4 times this year, and its customer base doubling in 2017.

“Marqeta is the clear market leader in modern card issuing, and we’re thrilled to be part of their already phenomenal growth story,” said Will Griffith, partner at ICONIQ Capital, in a statement. “They have the most advanced card issuing technology in the category, and they have assembled an extraordinary team of industry leaders.” Gardner, for one, is a repeat (and successful) entrepreneur, previously working as an executive at MoneyGram after it acquired his previous company, PropertyBridge.

The startup has partnerships with Visa, MasterCard and Discover to provide both payment services to a wide range of businesses that work in marketplace environments where payments are taken from one party, transferred via a second, and then eventually made to a third.

These include e-commerce businesses such as Square, Instacart and DoorDash; as well as others working in other kinds of financial transactions that need instant turnarounds, such as loan platforms like Kabbage and Klarna. The second big area of Marqeta’s business is focused on card issuing, providing customised card services to companies that issue cards (physical or virtual) to their customers.

It’s also been working with Visa on developing payment technologies. As with another fast-growing payments startup, Stripe, Marqeta positions itself as “developer friendly.” The company provides many of its payment processing services via API and one big focus is to streamline and improve the security around each transaction.

It’s also been expanding its presence across the digital payments landscape, launching a Digital Wallet SDK for Apple Pay and Google Pay, Marqeta.js, and Marqeta’s Virtual Card Wizard, making it easier for businesses to build more customised card experiences for their users.

]]>https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/05/marqeta-iconiq/feed/01651457https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/05/marqeta-iconiq/Square brings its Stand for iPad tablets to the UKhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechCrunch/Square/~3/LaWSOBXJXjY/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/23/square-brings-its-stand-for-ipad-tablets-to-the-uk/#respondWed, 23 May 2018 23:00:29 +0000https://techcrunch.com/?p=1644617Square, the company that provides payments and other business services to merchants, is today taking another step in its gradual expansion outside of the U.S. Stand — one of Square’s key pieces of hardware, turning an iPad into a point of sale system — is launching in the U.K.

It will sell for £64 (+VAT) and will be sold alongside existing products that Square offers in the U.K. — Square Reader, its Point of Sale app, Instant Deposit, Virtual Terminal and Cash app. (Square Register, the company’s all-in-one product for larger businesses that sells for $999, is not yet available outside the U.S.)

Those two developments underscore both the challenges and opportunities ahead for Square.

On the one hand, the company is tapping into a big market opportunity by creating services that cater to the often-overlooked small and medium business sector — and the Stand, which extends a tablet into a more interactive payment terminal, plays into that.

On the other hand, the consolidation underway between iZettle and PayPal points to how stronger competitors — PayPal’s market cap is nearly four times that of Square — going after the same business as Square, will put pressure on the company. (As a point of comparison, iZettle’s tablet stands range in price from £49 to £99.)

Square may be smaller, but it has picked up a lot of loyalty for its services and innovations. Square says that today the company has two million business customers using its products globally. It doesn’t break out numbers by geography or product. But given how many merchants use more than just a phone to take payments and run other sales software (a phone being the basic building block of Square’s original card payment processor), it was a much-requested feature.

“Square Stand was built to provide sellers with a unique and beautiful solution that makes taking in-person payments simple, elegant and fast,” said Jesse Dorogusker, Square’s hardware lead and designer of the Stand. “Sellers in the U.K. have been asking for a full countertop solution for their businesses since we first introduced Square.”

Despite its popularity and how it seemed to appear and take off amid a surge of smartphone and tablet adoption and use in the U.S., Square has taken a very deliberate route when it’s come to growing outside its home country, where payment methods, regulations and languages might all be different. Today, the company has operations in the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia and the U.K. It also has an office in Ireland but not active payments or other business.

Asked about where Square might like to go next, the company has remained mum.

“Nothing to share on that front,” a spokesperson said. “We are just getting started here in the U.K. and iterating fast to bring new services to market. Since we entered the U.K. market in 2017 we have continued to bring our U.K. sellers important products at a steady pace.”

]]>https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/23/square-brings-its-stand-for-ipad-tablets-to-the-uk/feed/01644617https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/23/square-brings-its-stand-for-ipad-tablets-to-the-uk/Circle raises $110 million (or 13,300 BTC)http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechCrunch/Square/~3/ZwFpJYlMybE/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/16/circle-raises-110-million-or-13300-btc/#respondWed, 16 May 2018 14:24:57 +0000https://techcrunch.com/?p=1640846Cryptocurrency startup Circle has raised a $110 million funding round, which values the company near $3 billion. Cryptocurrency mining company Bitmain is leading the round.

Existing investors IDG Capital, Breyer Capital, General Catalyst, Accel, Digital Currency Group and Pantera are investing more money. Blockchain Capital and Tusk Ventures are investing in Circle for the first time. Goldman Sachs also invested in the company in a previous round.

It’s hard to describe Circle in a few words because the company has been active on all fronts. For a really long time, the company pitched itself as a social payment company, a Venmo and Square Cash competitor. But Circle is more focused than ever on cryptocurrencies.

The company has been operating one of the largest over-the-counter trading desks for big cryptocurrency investors and exchanges. Circle Trade manages more than $2 billion a month in transactions and is able to fulfill large orders and provide liquidity.

More recently, the company launched Circle Invest, a really simple mobile app for the U.S. market. It lets you buy and sell Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, Zcash and Monero in just a few taps. It’s a good way to get started with cryptocurrencies without learning about exchanges and order types. It could become a good Coinbase competitor for small cryptocurrency investors.

And Circle also acquired Poloniex, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the U.S.

But the most interesting projects right now are probably CENTRE and a new tokenized USD coin. There are so many different cryptocurrencies, fiat currencies, exchanges and wallets that it has become hard to make everything work together. Cryptocurrencies still suffer from price volatility, so bitcoin can’t be the common denominator.

That’s why Circle is creating a token that is pegged to the U.S. dollar. The USD Coin is based on an open source framework developed by CENTRE and everything should be audited regularly.

CENTRE is a Circle initiative to create a common framework to connect all electronic wallets. This protocol could let you send money to an Alipay user with your Square Cash balance.

It’s clear that Circle wants to build the infrastructure of the cryptocurrency industry. The company will need to convince multiple industry players to work with Circle, but it could help the cryptocurrency ecosystem as a whole.

]]>https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/16/circle-raises-110-million-or-13300-btc/feed/01640846https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/16/circle-raises-110-million-or-13300-btc/Square launches restaurant point-of-sale platformhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechCrunch/Square/~3/0_vskdLC4_A/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/08/square-launches-restaurant-point-of-sale-platform/#commentsTue, 08 May 2018 15:00:42 +0000https://techcrunch.com/?p=1635026Square, which has already made its way into retail stores and service-based businesses (think hair salons, massage therapists, etc.), is officially getting into the restaurant business with the launch of Square for Restaurants. Square for Restaurants is a point-of-sale system that handles everything from menu updates, floor layouts, employee scheduling and performance tracking to tip splitting.

“Historically, we’ve not served this customer segment very well,” Henry said. “With Square for Restaurants, we’re excited to finally be able to serve this customer segment and deliver on a couple of key things that are core to Square but also highly valued by sellers of all types.”

This new product is designed to be fast, self-serve, elegant and cohesive, Henry said. It also integrates seamlessly into Square’s existing ecosystem that includes Payroll, Capital and more. Given Square’s ownership of on-demand food delivery startup Caviar, it’s no wonder why Square fully integrated Caviar into the point-of-sale system. This means restaurants don’t need to have a separate tablet system for Caviar.

Square for Restaurant seating layout

“The omnichannel piece of restaurants is now truly coming into fruition with this integration,” Caviar Product Lead Gokul Rajaram told me. “We believe and we’ve seen restaurants increasingly becoming a multichannel or omnichannel platform where an increasing percent of their orders are coming from online channels — not just from diners coming into the store, but from delivery and pickup.”

Now, through the Square system, restaurants will be able to handle everything in one place. That means they can see their sales broken out by channel and understand what percentage of sales comes from delivery versus pickup versus in-restaurant dining, Rajaram said.

While these don’t yet exist, third-party applications from Postmates, UberEats and DoorDash could integrate into the Square POS. The issue right now for restaurants, according to Square, is the fact that delivering food for multiple services means a big tablet farm.

“The intention is that we can work with all of those because that’s what our sellers want,” Henry said.

While it’s been in beta, more than 100 restaurants have used the product, including Bar Agricole in San Francisco and Greca in New York City. According to Square, the platform is relatively easy to set up. At launch, Square is charging $60 per month plus $40 per month for each additional POS set-up.

]]>https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/08/square-launches-restaurant-point-of-sale-platform/feed/21635026https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/08/square-launches-restaurant-point-of-sale-platform/iZettle, the ‘Square of Europe’, plans IPO to raise around $227M, valuing it at $1.1Bhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechCrunch/Square/~3/AmaiEOoFkGo/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/08/izettle-the-square-of-europe-plans-ipo-to-raise-around-227m-valuing-it-at-1-1b/#respondTue, 08 May 2018 11:33:41 +0000https://techcrunch.com/?p=1635327The strong climate for tech IPOs at the moment is leading yet more mature startups to set up their own plans to list, and the latest development on that front is coming out Sweden. iZettle, the payments and small business financial services startup that is often referred to as the “Square of Europe,” with some 413,000 business customers, today confirmed plans to list on Nasdaq in Stockholm. The company plans to raise 2 billion Swedish kronor ($227 million at current rates), giving it an estimated valuation of about SEK10 billion ($1.1 billion).

Jacob deGeer, iZettle’s co-founder and CEO, said in an interview that the plan is to use the proceeds to “execute on our ambitious growth strategy” both by continuing to serve small and medium businesses but also by turning its focus also to larger merchants and other companies in Europe and Latin America, the two markets where iZettle is currently active.

The company is currently operating at a loss, but it’s growing quickly with that loss narrowing. In its prospectus, iZettle said it forecasts consolidated net revenue (gross revenue less interchange and card scheme fees) growth of at least 40 percent annually, with a profit — specifically, positive consolidated Ebitda — “by the year ended December 31, 2020.”

“Our growth is driven by two factors,” DeGeer said in an email interview, “an increase in the number of active users and improved user engagement. Our strategy going forward is to grow our merchant base in existing markets as well as shift the mix towards slightly larger merchants, though our focus will continue to remain on small businesses.”

iZettle notes that the listing would happen sometime in 2018 but has not yet specified an exact date.

Along with the IPO announcement, iZettle has published its most up-to-date financials, which confirm that the company is still operating at a loss, but with that margin shrinking as its revenues continue to grow.

In the first three months of 2018, the company reported negative earnings before tax, depreciation and amortization of SEK73 million ($8.3 million), slightly narrower than its negative Ebitda of SEK78 million ($8.8 million). More details on its financials below.

iZettle’s announcement puts to rest IPO speculation that has been swirling around the company for a while now, which reached a crescendo pitch last week. It also comes less than five months after the company raised its last funding — $47 million at a $950 million valuation.

A number of strong tech IPOs so far this year point to a sympathetic climate for more to list, rather than stay private and raise more growth funds that way.

“We were founded eight years ago and have grown from a start-up to a mature fintech company,” DeGeer said. “Our shareholders and board believe that it is now an appropriate time to broaden the shareholder base and list the company. We believe that the listing will support our continued growth, our strategy and provide us with improved access to capital markets.”

Similar to Square, iZettle started out life as a service for small businesses and sole traders to take card payments by turning their mobile devices into card readers, taking a cut on each transaction, before later expanding from that into a wider range of services to help those people run other aspects of their businesses, from inventory management and ordering through to accounting and taking out business loans, and most recently to helping businesses build out e-commerce operations online, beyond the physical point of sale.

Some $36 million of the funding that iZettle has raised — around $235 million in total to-date — has also been used to look into newer areas of tech, specifically artificial intelligence, and how that can be applied both to helping iZettle run its business and develop new products for its customers.

So far, the company has been growing strong, but despite the push into multiple alternative revenue streams, the bulk of its revenues remain in payments.

In the first three months of this year, iZettle reported gross revenues of SEK258 million ($29 million), versus SEK187 million for the same period a year ago. Of the SEK258 million, SEK209 million came from transactions, SEK31 million came from hardware and only SEK18 million came from software and services. “In the long term, the Company targets a consolidated Ebitda net margin (defined as Ebitda as a percentage of Net revenue) of 30-35 percent,” the company notes.

]]>https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/08/izettle-the-square-of-europe-plans-ipo-to-raise-around-227m-valuing-it-at-1-1b/feed/01635327https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/08/izettle-the-square-of-europe-plans-ipo-to-raise-around-227m-valuing-it-at-1-1b/Square is acquiring website builder Weebly for $365Mhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechCrunch/Square/~3/h2eic_MXNQ0/
https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/26/square-acquires-weebly/#commentsThu, 26 Apr 2018 20:41:01 +0000https://techcrunch.com/?p=1629359Square just announced that it’s reached an agreement to acquire Weebly for $365 million in cash and stock.

Square says that by acquiring Weebly, it can create “one cohesive solution” for entrepreneurs looking to build an online and offline business. And because 40 percent of Weebly’s 625,000 paid subscribers are outside the U.S., the deal will help Square expand globally.

“Square and Weebly share a passion for empowering and celebrating entrepreneurs,” said Square CEO Jack Dorsey in the acquisition release. “Square began its journey with in-person solutions while Weebly began its journey online. Since then, we’ve both been building services to bridge these channels, and we can go even further and faster together.”

Weebly was founded in 2007 by David Rusenko, Chris Fanini and Dan Veltr. (Rusenko, who’s still the company’s CEO, is pictured above.) According to Crunchbase, the company raised $35.7 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, Tencent Holdings, Baseline Ventures, Floodgate, Felicis, Ron Conway and Y Combinator.

Square says the acquisition price includes stock for Weebly founders and employees that will vest over a four-year period.

Update: During a conference call with reporters, Square executives were asked whether the company is becoming more acquisitive. CFO Sarah Friar said it was more a case of “serendipity.” In this instance, Square and Weebly had been working together for years now, and she said, “We love the way David and the company talk about the entrepreneur. Culturally, we feel very aligned.”

Friar cautioned against into reading this as a situation where Square “decided to wake up … and do a bunch of acquisitions.” For the most part, she said the company will stick to “a build path and a partner path.”

Most of the Weebly team will be joining Square. Rusenko added that he just finished the all-hands meeting where he announced the acquisition.

“There’s just a tremendous amount of excitement … a true shared and mutual respect,” he said. He also recalled telling his team, “I am very excited to continue working on this mission for a very long time.”